Metal Slug Defense (Free) was quite the hit on the App Store even though it was a departure from the classic arcade recipe of its ancestors. The upcoming sequel, Metal Slug Attack, refines the original’s Tower Defense mechanic and adds on top of that pretty much everything you can imagine. The game includes a new support system, bases that can be stolen by rivals, new modes, special missions in Combat School, unit evolution and a unit leveling system, asynchronous battles with up to 3 decks each, 1-on-1 and 2-on-2 real-time battles, Guilds with Guild Raids and Special Ops Modes, and so on. The trailer claims that the game offers a deeper strategic challenge now, which makes sense given the unit leveling and the sheer amount of units. And the art continues to be a highlight for me since it reminds of playing the original Metal Slug games back in the day.
The game is supposed to release at some point in early 2016, though I wouldn’t be surprised if that date is tentative. I do have to hand it to the developers, though, since they took one of the most famous classic arcade games and turned it into a great mobile game by taking advantage of what the platform has to offer. I’ve bought a few of the Metal Slug ports on iOS and while they are serviceable, the controls were, of course, fiddly. By turning it into a tower defense game, the developers managed to grab the attention of both those who’d played the original ones back in the day as well as the younger crowd. I expect Metal Slug Attack to do equally well as Metal Slug Defense, although I’m a bit worried that the game might end up drowning in its own features.
